Method and apparatus for building rubber boots or shoes



April 1 1924. 1,489,050

E. C. WILLIAMS ET AL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BUILDING RUBBER BOOTS OR SHOES Filed July 16. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 28 J1 if r I72 zwnivr/y 15. a WzfZZZama. Z9 Milk yin)".

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April 1 192 4. 1,489,050

E. c. WILLIAMS ET AL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BUILDING RUBBER BOOTS OR SHOES Filed July 16. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 In venimw E. amilz'amad (If. ZZzyZmm Patented Apr. I 1, 1924.

STATE-S EDWARD C. WILLIAMS AND JOSEPH I. TAYLOR, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNORS TO THE B. F. GOODRICH. COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF YORK.

METHOD AND APPARATUS BUILDING RUBBER BOOTS OR snom.

Application filed July 16, 1921. Serial No. 485,162.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD O. VII,- LIAMS and JosnrH l. TAYLOR, citizens of the United States, residing at Akron, in the county of Summit and Stateof Ohio, have.

invented a certain new and useful Method and Apparatus for Building Rubber Boots or Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the art of building footwear on v lasts, and it relates more particularly to the manufacture of rubber footwear.

One of our objects is to provide an improved method and improved apparatus adapted for rapid production in which several lasts are closely assembled within easy reach of the operator, together with a supply of stock. A further object is to provide last-supporting means whereby the lasts may readily be mounted and removed, and each last without being removed from its support may be turned about for the application of stock, may be moved out of the way of the operator between operations, and yet be immediately available for the following operation. g

Of the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front-side view of a preferred embodiment of our invention with the lastsin place and of a type adapted for makin rubber boots.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4: is a front-side view of one of the last-mountings.

Fig. 5 is a front-side view of a modification, especially adapted for light footwear, the stockholding shelves being omitted.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of 5.

Fig. 7 is a section on line 7-7 of Fig. 5.

Referring first to Figs. 1 to l, 10 1s a bench provided below with drawers 11, 11 for supporting diiierent kinds of stock and with shelves 12, 12 and guideways 13, 13 for supporting trays of stock. Space may also be provided beneath the bench for a supply of lasts. Mounted upon the respective ends or said bench are standards 14, 14 formed with vertical slots 15, 15 for adjustably securing the ends of a pipe or bar 16 extending between said standards, for supporting the lasts 17, 17. Mounted upon said bar is a plurality of sleeves 18, 18, each formed with a slot 19 preferably extending about 90 the taper being such that the last will wedge in the case of a turret, since all of the lasts in a circumferential direction, each sleeve being secured against longitudinal movement and limited in its circumferential movement on the bar by a stop-pin 20 projecting, from the bar into said slot.

Each of the sleeves 18 is provided with a tapered arm 21 extending radially therefrom. The last is provided with a tapered socket 22 adapted to seat upon said arm,

upon the arm and will not be displaced by small forces but may be turned upon the arm to give it different positions desired by the operator. 1

The arm 21, slot 19 and stop-pin 2O preferably are so positioned with relation to each other that the pin, by abutting-an end wall of the slot, will stop the last in one direction substantially in a horizontal position and in the other direction with the sole upward and the last leaning slightly past the vertical position, away from the operator, so that its weight willprevent it from swinging forward. We do not wholly limit ourselves, however, to stopping the last near the vertical position nor to a device adapted for an operator at one side only of the bench.

In the preferred method of operating this device, all of the sleeves 18 are turned upon the bar 16 to the position shown in Fig. 1, with the arms 21 extending in a substantially horizontal direction toward the operator, and a boot last is mounted upon each arm simply by pressing it thereon. The operator then takes a supply of stock and applies a like part to each of the lasts, which may be rapidly done without further manipulation of the device as would be required are within easy reach and at the same convenient height. One or more corresponding pieces of stock being applied to each last, the operator, beginning at one end of the row'and standin at the side of the last, rolls and stitches t e stock in. place with hand tools, turning each last upon the arm 21 to present all parts of the work directly to him.

As the rolling and stitching operation is 105 com leted upon each blast, it is turned upwar about the bar 16 to the position shown at the right in Fig. 1, the pin 20 stopping-it slightly past the center, where its own weight prevents it from swinging forward.

tit") Ell The way is thus cleared for the operator to work at the side of the next. boot, which is an important advantage because much more rapid and better work may be done from that position and with less tiring effect than from the end of the last. Certain operations also may be more handily performed upon theboot in its vertical position. Thus the operator works from one end of the device to the other end, then returns all of the lasts to the first position and repeats the operation to add other parts to the boots. The advantages are not merely in the convenient positioning of each last to be worked upon and throwing it out of the way with a minimum of manipulation of the device, but economy of floor space is obtained, since the supply of stock and lasts may be kept directly under the last supports, and they, as Well as the work itself, consisting of a considerable number of boots, are brought close together within easy reach of the operator with a minimum of mechanism.

A further and very great advantage consists in the fact that production can be increased without fatigue to the operator, and without the monotony of purely repetitional Work on a single operation, the one operator, as usual in rubber footwear building, doing all the major operations of assembling and stitching or rolling, although performing a number ofthe same kind of operations on different boots before proceeding to the next kind.

Referring to the modification shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, for light footwear, a bar 23, lengthwise of the bench 10, extends through a middle standard 24 and is rotatably supported at its ends by standards 25, 25. A hand-lever 26 is secured adjacent the standard 24: and provided with a latching pin 27 backed by a spring 28 and adapted to enter holes 29, 29 in a keeper-member 30 mounted upon the bar 23 between said lever and said standard, and secured against rotation by the dowel pin 30*. The pin 2? is slidably mounted in the lever 26 and threaded into a handle 31, by which it may be withdrawn from said holes, the lever 26 thus being adapted to hold the bar 23 in different rotary positions. The bar 23 is provided with a plurality of tapered arms or pins 21 each adapted to receive a shoe-last 32 formed with a tapered hole in its base. With this construction, as stated above with regard to the boot lasts 17, the last may readily be turned about the pin while being suihciently wedged thereon to withstand the "moderate pressure of the building operation, and may be quickly mounted upon and removed from the pin. The lasts may all be moved together to several positions, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 6, by setting the lever 2- In the operation. of this embodiment,

which is especially adapted for light footwear, the bar 23 may be set in any convenient rotary'position, such as that shown in Fig. 5, and a number of lasts mounted upon the pins 21. The operator then successively applies like parts of stock to all of the lasts, each of which is conveniently presented to him Without further manipulation of the device, as is required in the case of a turret. One or more pieces of stock having been applied to each last, the operator begins at one end of the row and rolls and stitches the stock in place, turning each last about its pin as may be desired to present different parts of its surface. Some of the shoe parts can best beapplied or worked with the sole of the last elevated, and for this purpose the entire row of lasts may be so positioned by turning the bar 23 and setting it by means of the handle 31. This form of our invention presents similar advantages to those of the first-described form. I

In building footwear as herein described, with either type of apparatus, not only are the several lasts supported within easy reach of the operator, but they are supported in such definite relation to each other that when the operator has finished an operation upon one last he may transfer his operations to the next last with a minimum of conscious muscular control, wherefore production is greatly increased, such transition of operations from one last to the next being always the same and his actions consequently becoming intuitive.

Various changes in the details of construction may be made without departing from the principles of the invention.

"We claim:

1. The method of building rubber footwear which comprises applying like pieces of stock successively to a series of lasts closely grouped at a working station, turning each last in succession upon its own axis to present difi erent parts of its surface, and

successively pressing the pieces of stock in place upon said different parts of said lasts, while supporting said lasts at the same working station and in definite relation to each other such that the transition of the operation from one last to the next may be substantially uniform throughout the series.

2. The method of building rubber footwear which comprises applying like pieces of stock successively to a closely-grouped series of lasts having their soles toward the operator, turning each last upon its own axis to present diderent parts of its surface, successively pressing the pieces of stock in place upon said different parts of said lasts, working from the sic e of each last, and moving each last away from its nei hbor as the pressing operation is complete 3. App atus of the class described comavailably holding a eup= prising means for holding a plurality of.

to lasts in overhanging positions within the operators reach and in a substantially horizontal row, with their soles substantially vertical while permitting each last to be turned on, its own axis, which is perpendicular to its sole, said holding means being adapted to permit the turning of said lasts individually out of said row to give access to the next last 5. A boot or shoe tree comprising a horiso zontally-extending support, arms mounted perpendicularly upon said support and lasts pivoted upon said arms, for movement about their own axes perpendicular to their soles, said arms being adapted to be swung about said support to hold said lasts in a substantially strai ht row at different positions relative to sai support.

6. A boot or shoe tree com rising at support, tapered members pivote on said supso port, means for limiting the pivotal movement of said members and lasts provided with tapered sockets adapted to be wedged upon and frictionally retained by saidtapered members, to hold said lasts in a substantially straight row at different positions relative to said support while rmittin said lasts to be turned upon said tapere members.

7. Apparatus of the class described comprising a bench rovided below with means for availably ho ding a supply of pieces of stock, a horizontal support mounted upon said bench, a plurality arms mounted perpendicularly upon said support and lasts pivoted upon said arms, for movement about their own axes perpendicular to their soles, said arms being ada ted to be swung about said support to hol said lasts in a row at different positions relative to said support.

8. A boot or shoe tree comprising a horizontal su port, arms indivi ually pivoted Bil upon sai support, means for limiting the pivotal movement of said arms, and lasts pivoted u on said arms, said arms being adapted individually to be swung about said so port to assemble said lasts in a substantial y sitions about said bar to hold said lasts in a row at difierent elevations, each of said sleeves ,being free of last-supporting rojections throughout substantially half 0 its circumference, so that when the lasts are brought into a row and then each in success'io'n turned out of the row free access to the next last, from the end of the row, will be provided;

10. A-boot or shoe tree comprising a fixed bar, a series of sleeves mounted on said bar, sald sleeves'being'formed with substantially circumferential slots, stop pins extending from said bar into said slots, arms mounted on said sleeves and lasts pivoted on said arms.

11. A boot or shoe tree comprising a fixed bar, a series ofsleeves mountedon saidbar, said sleeves being formed with substantially circumferential slots, stop pins extendi 1 from said bar into said slots, arms moun on said sleeves and lasts pivoted on said arms said slots, stop pins and arms being so posltioned relatively to each other that said asts will be stopped in substantially horizontal position and in substantially vertical positions slightly past center with regard to said bar. V

12. In a device of the character described, the combination of a last provided with a 95 tapered socket and a tapered metallic member adapted to be wed ed into and frictionally to retain said soc et and sup ort said last while permitting the latter to turned about said member for the application of stock tosaid last.

13. Apparatus for building rubber footwear comprising a su rt, a ta r in so arranged thereon as tc z hbld a la with its sole substantially in a vertical plane, and a socketed last frictionally mounted in swiveling relation to said pin.

In witness whereof we. have hereunto set our hands this 9th day of July, 1921,

EDWARD C. WILLIAMS. JOSEPH I. TAYLOR. 

